1. Field
The invention is a coupling device for connecting a hose to the tail pipe or exhaust pipe of an internal combustion engine to conduct exhaust from the tail pipe and from an enclosed space, such as a garage or the repair bay of a service station, to the atmosphere.
Engine repair and adjustment is often carried out in an enclosed space and it is often necessary or desirable to run the engine in the enclosed space for testing and adjustment. It is, of course, well known that if carbon monoxide containing exhaust accumulates in the enclosed space results can be fatal and, consequently, there must be significant ventilation of the work space during discharge of exhaust into the space or the exhaust must be conducted out of the enclosed work space to the atmosphere.
2. Related Art
It is a common practice in service stations to place a corrugated rubber hose over the tail pipe of an automobile and pass the hose through an opening in the overhead door to thereby conduct exhaust from the tail pipe to the atmosphere. Customarily, in practice, no special adaptor or coupling device is used; the hose is merely placed over the tail pipe in a loosely-fitting, female-male relationship. This practice allows leakage of exhaust into the work bay of the service station from the joint between the hose and the tail pipe. In addition, the hose is easily knocked-off the tail pipe. It also often becomes melted at the point of engagement with the tail pipe, which gets hot after the engine has run for a few minutes and often falls off, thereby allowing exhaust to be discharged into the enclosed work space. For these reasons the present practice is far from ideal.
The problem of conducting exhaust from an enclosed work space to the atmosphere has been recognized and addressed in prior art patents including Crane (1,112,681), Avery (1,390,950), Sinkes (1,725,834), Stougaard (1,879,581), Woytal et al. (2,467,922), Pfetzing (2,738,668), Imming (2,990,198) and Grant (4,102,254). Each of these prior art patents shows a coupling device of one form or another to couple an exhaust hose to the tail or exhaust pipe of an automobile engine. In each case, however, structure is provided that requires setting thumb screws or wing nuts (Avery and Woytal et al), using hooks (Crane and Pfetzing), using magnetic devices (Imming), using special threaded adaptor devices permanently attached to the tail pipe for threaded releasable attachment to a mating adaptor on an exhaust hose (Sinkes) or complicated swing-up structures that swing into insecure relationship with the tail pipe (Stougaard and Grant).
In each of these prior art devices there is complicated structure which adds expense, makes attachment and release more complicated and often less secure, and adds to the maintenance of the device.